I love this image I captured last year of the sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean. Seeing it again, I can hear the gentle rush of the morning surf and the calls of seagulls. I feel the chill, damp of the wind whipping past. And I can even taste the salty air in my mouth.

Sunrises and sunsets can be difficult to photograph well. I was lucky enough to take this picture with my iPhone, no special lenses in place. A wonderful thing about phone cameras is that they can slide right out of your pocket, ready to go at a moment’s notice. It’s so nice to have it with me wherever I go, without all the camera bags and bundles of traditional photography.

It took me awhile to embrace digital photography. I was a holdover from the darkroom days, still hanging on to my love of the process of developing and printing images. It’s lost art I still miss at times. But I’m a convert now, having fully embraced the digital darkroom environment of the modern world and the simplicity it provides.

Still, the best photographs are the ones you don’t have to do anything to. The ones that take themselves, like this one did. Many of my photographs are of my travels to one coast or another. I believe the ocean is an ever-changing canvas, most often beautiful and ready for anyone who stops to look.